Tuesday night marked Fall Out Boy’s triumphant and long-awaited return to Adelaide after four years, three album releases, and a painful hiatus in between.
Bringing songs from their comeback LP Save Rock & Roll, Fall Out Boy graced Adelaide with the first show on their Australian tour.
With own attitude-filled rockers British India along for the ride, it seemed likely that crowd excitement levels would be soaring.
The venue of choice was the Adelaide Entertainment Centre – host of events such as Kimbra’s 2012 tour and Vampire Weekend’s first Adelaide show.
While the room itself was large, the stage had been pushed noticeably forward, suggesting that maybe not that many people had actually purchased tickets.
Regardless of layout, the room filled up comfortably before British India took the stage.
Whispers scattered across fans in the room, all asking the same question: “Why are these guys opening? They’re so different to Fall Out Boy, and America got Panic! At The Disco as openers”.
They were right to ask, too. Pop-punk fangirls are about as different from the British India-loving Triple J listeners as could be, so it was fair to question why the Australian four-piece were there.
With a few fans dispersed around the crowd making themselves known with hearty cheers, British India pulled off their show remarkably well.
Playing hits like ‘Summer Forgive Me’ and ‘I Can Make You Love Me’, onlookers seemed to get more and more into it as the band’s 40-minute set progressed.
At long last, it was Fall Out Boy’s turn to enchant the room.
Their introduction went as follows: lights dimmed, fans screamed, the introduction of “The Phoenix”, and finally the dropping of an all-concealing white curtain, revealing the four-piece in balaclavas.
The picture-perfect opening led to an immediate shut-off of house lights, giving the band time to change out of their headgear, fix their hair, and for frontman Patrick Stump to don the fedora he wears so well.
What came after was nothing short of magical – at least, for those who love From Under The Cork Tree. ‘I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me’ preceded ‘A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More “Touch Me”’ to huge roars and unavoidable sing-alongs.
It was obvious that bassist Pete Wentz remains the public voice of the band when on stage, while Stump happily sticks to his singing.
Throughout the set, Wentz regaled the audience with statements like “Fall Out Boy loves you because you’re a freak, and you’re different from everyone else, not in spite of it”, and “We named it Save Rock And Roll because it’s not supposed to be easily marketable – it’s supposed to be obtuse, and it’s supposed to be different”.
The song choices were skewed equally toward their latest full-length and From Under The Cork Tree, the band playing a good handful of tracks from each.
Tracks such as ‘Young Volcanoes’, ‘Alone Together’, ‘Save Rock And Roll’, and ‘Just One Yesterday’ filled the set, alongside Cork Tree hits like ‘Dance, Dance’, and ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down’.
Arguably the highlights of the show were the songs no one expected them to play. Unfortunately they were few and far between, but when they played tracks like Pax Am Days’ ‘Love, Sex, Death’ and ‘Death Valley’, those who knew the songs were filled with joy.
As the lights dimmed a five-minute interlude began, filled with audio of an old Iggy Pop interview about punk rock music.
Heads then turned toward the back of the room where guitarist Joe Trohman, Wentz and Stump had somehow appeared with acoustic guitars.
From there they performed ‘I’m Like A Lawyer With The Way I’m Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You)’ and ‘Grand Theft Autumn (Where Is Your Boy)’. Half the crowd had raced up to the small stage, leaving the other half guarding their front-row spots for the remainder of the show.
An encore saw them come back with the cheesy but powerful ‘Save Rock And Roll’, followed by ‘Thnks Fr Th Mmrs’ and traditional closer ‘Saturday’.
Given that fans stood still until well after the show fully ended, it was clear that the majority wished that Fall Out Boy had brought a few more songs to play.
Both reunion shows and pop-punk shows have three constants in common: fans lining up for hours before the doors open, energetic crowds, and a whole lot of screaming.
Because this show featured both conditions, it was obvious from the start how the gig would pan out. Fall Out Boy, along with British India, managed to dominate the night, leaving fans with joyful smiles and ringing ears.
